Why do I ALWAYS fail DC 20 sleight of hand? (pickpocket)

[Schuit]

There's no way there's actually dice rolling. I have a +8 to pickpocket, stealthed, invisible, all that jazz, and I always fail currency grabbing or Very Rare. I should only need to roll a 12 to beat it. Yet I'm failing consistently. If you wanna make it harder to rob merchants, just give it a DC 30 cause they're always observant of their money, but come on... It's obvious there's no roll involved in merchant pickpocket. Can't even use Lucky feat on it =/

I've even had a bard performing where EVERYONE is faced away, merchant included, still fail the check. What kinda thief can't pickpocket a merchant? =/

[Schuit]

update, successfully struck the merchant with drow poison in broad daylight, they fell asleep. STILL failed the DC 20 check, with a +8.

[Like a sir]

I think that sleight of hand doesn't work as it should, because for example I have +9 , but only +3 is taken into theft interface and in the log calculations too

[Maxxor]

If it says that you have to hit 20, it means 20 on the dice, if you check the log on the bottom right after you fail it will say something like:

difficulty class: 30
skill check: 19 (1d20) + 6 (proficiency) + 3 (dexterity modifier) + 1 (sleight of hand modifier) = 29

Ive been noticing that im unable to hit 20 on the dice when pickpocketing, not sure if its even possible, so i recommend selling items to the merchant, stealing the gold when it says you need to hit less than 20 when pickpocketing and stealing the items back, going away, full resting and you should be good and wont be chased for stealing.

[KalDrax]

I believe the DC check it shows you is with all your mods already added in, not the base DC.

[Boogeyman]

The pickpocket dc shown show what you need to roll when your static bonuses (+1 dex, +2 proficiency etc.) are taken into account. It doesn't take into account rolled bonuses (+1d4 guidance, +1d6 bards thing) or advantage. It is different from how other dcs are shown so it can be not obvious at first.

[Musaka-San]

Originally posted by Boogeyman:

The pickpocket dc shown show what you need to roll when your static bonuses (+1 dex, +2 proficiency etc.) are taken into account. It doesn't take into account rolled bonuses (+1d4 guidance, +1d6 bards thing) or advantage. It is different from how other dcs are shown so it can be not obvious at first.

This! It's really not obvious how the interface and it's bugging a lot of people, but the small number you see in the pickpocket UI is the clean roll you need to throw (the 1d20).
So e.g. you have +8 from various modifiers, and the item you want to steal is generally DC20, then you'll see "12" displayed as a target in the pickpocket UI.

[Baldurs_Gate_2]

Always be on an advantage, That will lead to success in 99% of the stuff you can steal except high DC items.

[Nightlistic]

I noticed the more inspirations I have saved up the more I fail rolls.